Blood and Water
by seedofsorrows
Summary: Sasuke returns and takes everything Naruto has, so Naruto left the village with one goal, to kill Sasuke. Temari is caught up in the fighting as Naruto mixes blood and water in the creation of a new ninja village in the hopes of destroying his old friend
1. Of Blood and Sacrifice

Blood and Water

Arc 1: The Escape

Chapter 1: Of blood and Sacrifice

Here it is; the winner of the poll by one vote, Blood and Water! I had hoped that the poll would attract more attention than it did, but I can't say I'm not pleased with the results, I kinda might have found myself favoring this story over the others, I liked all of them, but sometime around October I realized that this one was my favorite.

Chapter ten on Five Star Seals is still coming slowly; I wouldn't expect it until early February. Just an update. I'm also in a ferocious battle with myself over discontinuing Metal or not. What can I say; the story is kinda a buzz kill.

Oh, I can pretty much guarantee that over eighty percent of the viewers who read this will never want to go anywhere near this story after they finish this chapter. Just a seriously depressing hunch really. But if you find yourself hating this chapter, I suggest reading the third chapter, you can skip reading the second if you want, in a way, this will be two stories blended into one, it's all quite fun, in the third chapter, one character's attitude changes drastically from what it is in this chapter. So those who ignore this warning are going to miss out on the rest of the story when things do change back to somewhat close to the way they like it.

For those that have, will, and are planning to talk to me about the way I made Naruto in any of my stories, I like a Naruto that can be friendly one minute, and so cold you run away the next, but I really like writing a twisted, mangled, horrible Naruto, never as a bad guy kind of thing, but just twisted in ways so unimaginable it's fun.

I think you guys need to read this chapter and enjoy something dragged out of my psycho, bi-polar mind, so without further delay, from the mind of Bigsho, Blood and Water!

Naruto stared in disbelief at the man who stood before him, he was dead, he knew it, Sasuke had been dead to him for years, yet here he was, alive and breathing. Naruto's only thought was_ how is Sakura going to take this?_ and that thought was wildly buzzing in his head, along with all of the other things that his mind was slowly trying to digest, like what Tsunade was saying.

"…As well as being granted the title of Hokage when the Godiame retires; he is also given full pardon and enlisted as a jonin in Konoha until that time for the destruction of Orochimaru and the Sound village…"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold the phone a second here, he just waltzes in the fucking door and we hand him the keys to the city on a silver fucking platter!" he said, staring coldly at the man who had just taken almost everything away from him, almost.

"Also, the Haruno clan has agreed to an arranged marriage between the Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura."

"Hey, now when do I get a say in who my _fiancé _marries, this is bullshit!" he said, looking at Tsunade with hurt and angry eyes.

"Sorry, but it says here that at five-thirty this afternoon, just twenty minutes after Sasuke arrived, she came into the office and had your marriage documents terminated. I truly am sorry Naruto, I know you love Sakura, but apparently she sees something in the man sitting before you. And as for the rest of his rewards; they were given to him by a panel of senior ninjas, including Homura and Danzo, so I had no control over what his fate would be, I'd have rather killed him, myself." Tsunade said, looking at the Uchiha with distaste. Sasuke smiled.

"I decline, their proposal, I know of Sakura's affliction, she cannot bear a child, and that is exactly what I need." Sasuke said coolly from his chair. "I shall see if the Yamanaka's will take me up on an offer of the same sort, Ino is capable of what my wife needs to be capable of."

At those last words, something outside the room shattered. Naruto ran outside to see what it was, he found Sakura, tears pooling in her eyes; she had been carrying a plate with an unopened bottle of sake on it, now the plate and it's payload were smashed and broken on the floor, sake and tears mixing together as they fell from her face.

"I'm so sorry Naruto…" was all she managed to say at the time.

That was three months ago.

He had kicked her out of his house for that, throwing her out of his life. He paid for it greatly.

Naruto now stood in a crowd of thousands, watching with solemn eyes, a shrunken, beaten down, version of himself, as someone he had once considered a friend stood upon the steps of the Hokage Tower, ready to take the hat and robes that had, not but four months earlier, been guaranteed to him when Tsunade retired.

His body had remained the same, but his mind had quickly slithered into itself to get away from the loss of everything he loved. He was a ninja though, and even in his state, he sensed the approach of a certain person who had stayed away for three months, Sakura.

"Hey Naruto…" she said, as if she didn't know how to talk to him again. "I…I tried to reinstate our marriage papers, but your administration blocked it, why?" she asked, trying to get close to him. He pushed her away.

"You had promised me… you said that you'd never let anything or anyone come between us." He croaked.

"I meant it sweetie, but…"

"No, you didn't. You knew that the moment Sasuke came back, I'd be nothing more to you than a dull kunai, a useless tool, there are no but's involved." He said coldly.

"I'd never think of you like that…"

"Sakura, go away, and when I say that I mean go away and stay away, you've used this tool for the last time." He said and then he walked away.

Sakura went after him. "Naruto, I made a mistake! All right, I fucked up, everyone does, please forgive me, that's all I ask; I just want my Naruto back." She said.

Naruto looked at her despondently. "I wish I could believe that, but you made the choice to leave, I didn't, I was always there, you just let Sasuke go to your head again, am I really that imperceptible, and are you really that stupid, you've made your bed; now lay in it. I'm done with hoping that you'll return the love I have for you, I'm done hoping you'll open your eyes." He pulled his arm free, and walked away from the now stunned and crying Sakura.

Naruto had taken all he could of the ceremony, he packed his things and set his headband on the coffee table, he was leaving, and this time it wasn't for a two year training trip either. He was gone for good, Jiraiya, Lee, Gai, and Shino; all of them had died protecting a city that held no love for ninja, or for him for that matter, and to him, he could take their sacrifices and create a perfect ninja village, he wanted, no, he needed to do this; as much for them as for himself.

He finished packing and headed for the gate, hoping that there wouldn't be too many guards.

Keiho and her partner Gadoman stood by the gate silently. Gadoman grumbled; he'd rather be sitting in the park playing shogi with the other ninja his age. He wasn't nearly as old as the Third had been, but he was nearing the age. Keiho, on the other hand, was pissed.

She had been a member of Sasuke's year in the academy, and aside from Ino and Sakura, she was the biggest Sasuke fan of that class. Yet here she was guarding the gate with an old geezer while the hunk got the Hokage robes right from under the dead last's nose. It was a sight she didn't want to miss, and here she was missing it.

A man walked through the gates, heading south out of the village. Her attention snapped back to her duty.

"Name and reason for leaving?" She asked in a professional manner.

The man stopped and turned, in front of her stood the dead last, a frown marring his face. "I am Naruto Uzumaki, and my reason is simple, I'm leaving because I am the only one who can cause Sasuke enough hell to atone for what he has taken from me."

"What?" she asked, staring at the man with questioning eyes.

He pulled out a kunai and flicked it to the side, impaling itself in Gadoman's neck, a second followed within seconds and before Keiho could scream, she was dead, a kunai piercing her temple.

Naruto slipped quietly out the gates, no one saw, no one heard, and it would be hours until the shift change, and an hour after that before the Anbu checked out the kunai as his, and several minutes to determine his direction, by that time he'd have gotten far enough away that he wouldn't have to worry about them for a while.

He took a deep breath, he was a missing nin. He felt freer as a ninja than he had when he was a loyal dog of Konoha and its bullshit politics. He smiled as he took off into the trees, his only regret was the one of having to kill to escape the bonds of servitude that had once bound him.

Temari was sitting by her little fire that night, enjoying the night and dreading returning home. Back to being called the 'respectable' sister to both the Kazekage and the leader of the newly formed Puppeteer Corps; she hated it, but it was better than staying with the asshole that was about ready to take the office of Hokage.

A twig snapped outside of her camp and she became instantly alert.

A man emerged from the bushes to her left and stood, as if drunk on something; he then sat down by the fire and began warming up. Temari was too shocked by his actions to react properly, so she sat there for almost a full minute; her mouth opening and closing repeatedly.

"Who are…" she began, the man looked up and she gasped. Sitting by her fire was none other than the former Hokage-elect Naruto.

"Oh, Temari!" He exclaimed "How good it is to see you, after traveling in the woods all day one gets lonely, and cold, so when I saw your fire; I couldn't help myself, warmth and company are the strongest drugs a person can fall prey to." He said as he stuck his hands close to the fire.

She studied Naruto up and down, noting many things about him. He was quite handsome, but on closer inspection, he was thin and he had bags under his eyes from lack of sleep. His hair was messed up and he was missing something. She looked him over again before she came up with the answer.

"Naruto, where's your headband?" she asked.

"I don't need it anymore." He replied

"Why, did you retire, aren't you a little young to do that?"

"Well, I kinda retired, it's more like I…" he didn't finish as a kunai shot it's way toward him, he caught it and flipped around behind Temari, pinning her and putting the kunai to her throat. She looked up to see seven Anbu standing in front of Naruto. One took a step forward.

"Hey!" Naruto shouted. "You make one move on me, I'll kill her, this is the diplomat from Suna, so back off or you're likely to start a war between Konoha and Suna!"

"We just have to explain that one of our missing nin killed her. " The Anbu said.

"Yeah, well, you're forgetting who I am, I was in the Anbu for two years, I know how you act, how you are trained to kill, everything, I'll kill all of you and her, then make it look like you tried to assassinate her and she fought back, some of the jutsu I use have the same effects as her wind scythe jutsu, I can easily make it look like a failed assassination mission."

The Anbu stepped back. "He's right, let's retreat for now…"

The man didn't finish speaking as seven shuriken embedded themselves deep into the Anbu standing in front of Naruto.

"They never wanted to take action." Naruto said to her. "Besides, I wasn't going to harm you anyway, but now you know of what I am I can't exactly expect you to keep it from your brother, so, now I'm going to take drastic measures."

"Whoa, hey, missing nin, drastic measures, I don't like where this is going!" She said.

Naruto tied her hands and feet together; then threw her over his shoulder. "Me neither." He said as he gave a quick chop to the back of her neck, knocking her out. He then set up the camp to make it look like Temari had finished the Anbu with a wind jutsu before he left.

Temari woke with her hands untied, well almost. Her right hand was tied to a post. Her right was free to move as she wished, but the way she was positioned, she couldn't reach the knot to untie herself.

She scanned her surroundings. She lay on the bed in a small room, a chair stood just out of her reach, and in it sat her one time friend and ally gone missing nin, Naruto.

"Why are you doing this, and what are you going to do with me?" she asked.

"Ah, you're awake." He said, smiling. "Good, I can now explain, I left Konoha for two reasons, I had nothing there anymore, and I had become disgusted with the way it was run. Even if I had become Hokage, which at the time was likely, I wouldn't have been in control of anything, a panel of senior ninja would rule behind and above me, the Hokage is just a shield and figurehead, I think that is stupid, so I'm going to create my own ninja village, in a new land of unimaginable wealth and prosperity, for those who have died for a village that has been reduced to a shadow of what it once was. I believe that states my reason for doing what I have done, now, my choices on what to do with you. I have three; one, I could kill you; two, I could set you free, but you would have to follow my orders until we reach my destination; or three, I could hold you hostage and keep you as my prisoner for as long as I see fit." She glared at him. "In my opinion, the second is the best choice, but I know you too well, you'd try to escape and I'd be stuck chasing you so that the information I've told you could be kept secret."

She bit her lip. "I won't tell anyone." She promised.

Naruto sighed. "Temari, they'd interrogate you, torture you even, if they believe they could get anything on me out of you, what would Gaara say if he saw you sniveling like this?"

"Fuck Gaara right now! And fuck Kankuro too! I don't care what they think, I'm not just their sister, and I don't want to die here!" She shouted.

"You don't have to." Naruto said quietly. "Leave all of the shit behind, I will create a place for us to live, like Orochimaru did, it will start out small, but within a few years I'll have enough ninja to open myself to the world. Then, when Sasuke is least expecting it, The Village Hidden by the Ocean will rise out of the shadows and destroy him. That is my goal, that is all I live for now."

"A-are you mad?" Temari asked; staring at the man as if he was a complete lunatic. "Konoha is the strongest village in the Five Nations, not to mention it's allied with Suna, and we sand ninja are no pushovers either, besides, how are you going to amass a collection of ninja big enough to create a ninja village and be little more than a group of missing nin hiding in a bunker." She said, trying to convince her friend to give up the insane plan that he had come up with.

"No, I'm perfectly sane." Naruto said with a smile that assured he wasn't. "And as for how I'm going to do that, you delivered the report yourself. Mist has apparently had a bunch of ninja go renegade on them, I intend to track those ninja down and coerce them to join me."

"You mean the thirty ninja that went rogue last week?" she asked.

"Yes." He replied. "With their help I'll be able to start up a new village and slowly build up a force large enough to destroy Sasuke. Maybe I should also make use of the last of the Sound ninja and enlist them to help me fulfill my goal."

"You really are insane, getting help from Sound ninja, Naruto, open your eyes and see how far you have fallen." Temari said in a commanding voice.

Naruto got up and walked to the window, turning his back to her. He took in a breath and started speaking slowly.

"When Sakura was hurt on that mission, I lost hope in having a son, a piece of me died then, when Sasuke came back and took my job, my fiancé, my goal, and my dream. For each of those things, a part of my soul died, I'm an empty husk, unable to move beyond what drives me, and at the moment that drive tells me to kill Sasuke Uchiha or my friends in Konoha will regret it. This is the safest, but the slowest way of completing that goal, I will stage a betrayal to Konoha during a Chunin exam, just as Orochimaru did, I will succeed in killing the Hokage, just as Orochimaru did, but I am different from Orochimaru, as a man with nothing left to live for, I have no fear of death, as Orochimaru did. Now, will you join me, will I kill you, or will I keep you prisoner?"

Temari was silent for a moment, staring at the hopelessly wrecked person standing in front of her. He turned, and she slumped in defeat, there was no getting around him.

"Fine, for the time being, I am yours to command."

Naruto smiled. "Good." He said as he looked out the window again. "Because now I can untie you so you can help me with the fifteen Anbu waiting outside the building."

"Great, you sure attract a lot of unwanted attention don't you?"

He laughed. "Yeah, I suppose I do."

He bent down and untied her; he gave her fan back and jumped out the window.

The Anbu had been stationed around the hotel for about two hours when a loud whoop and a blond streak shot out of the window, impaling the Anbu captain with a kunai. He turned and flung another at an Anbu posted in the same tree, the Anbu blocked it easily with his sword.

"Naruto," He said, taking off his mask, it was Shikamaru, "I know what this has done to you, I know, but don't leave, Sasuke has asked us to bring you in alive, not kill you, most of us in Konoha would disobey that order in a heartbeat anyway."

"The reason he doesn't want me to die out here is because in killing me, he can gain the Mangekyo Sharingan, Either way, fighting back or succumbing and going back to the village, I die, so I'll take my chances, I'll avoid killing you, but the other Anbu better know that the only reason they're surviving is because you are here." Naruto shouted, loud enough so that the Anbu surrounding their location could hear what was said.

At that moment three more Anbu dashed at him from the left, Naruto dove forward, spinning around and launching six kunai. Three sliced open the first Anbu's left leg, cutting important nerves and easily ending the ninja's career, the next two pierced both eyes of the second, the sixth kunai sped toward the third Anbu's chest, but to avoid the attack, the woman turned, the kunai impacted deep into her right shoulder, shattering her shoulder blade as it penetrated all the way to the handle.

Naruto sighed, looking at Shikamaru. "I think we know what the outcome will be if more attack, call back your men."

"It's too late, they're already dead." Temari said as she jumped into the tree beside Naruto, balancing her fan between the ground and two of her fingers, one positioned to where she could open the fan as easy as flicking a switch.

Shikamaru grew wide-eyed when she landed. "T-Temari? What are you doing here?" he asked her.

"I've decided to take the high road in life, it didn't help that until a few minutes ago I was held prisoner here." She said "It seems to me that being able to do what I want, when I want isn't such a bad idea, why didn't I become a missing nin sooner."

Shikamaru looked at her incredulously. "You're telling me you've decided to run away from your village? And with the person who took you prisoner yesterday, are you really Temari, or am I seeing things?"

"No Shikamaru, I'm really here, and our plans, they can't continue with me like this, I'm sorry, but killing your soldiers makes this either an act of war against Konoha, or Suna, whichever way you want to look at it, or me going rogue, what would you have me do?"

Shikamaru slumped "So it's over, well, this news must reach the Rukodiame, I hope he lets me continue to follow you, because next time it might be someone a little less merciful than me." He placed his mask on his face and retreated quickly. Leaving Naruto and Temari in the tree.

Temari balled up her fists. "Damn you Naruto Uzumaki." She hissed. "I have lost everything now, I was planning on marrying him the next time I came to Konoha, Gaara was going to be there, and Shikamaru and I would be the go betweens for Konoha and Suna. We might have always been traveling, but we didn't care, now that life is gone from me, it's out of my grasp now, and it's your fault."

Naruto sighed "Would you have preferred it if I had kept you tied up. I know what you were going through, a very good friend of mine had the same problem, I saved you from that."

Temari punched him square in the face, sending him into the trunk of the tree. "So you knew; who cares! I gave up my only chance to be happy to get out of that now!" she growled, watching as the clone disappeared and Naruto jumped down from a higher branch.

"There will be more chances for happiness where we are going Temari, don't be impatient, when bad things happen, something good will come to counter it." He said, smiling at her. She collapsed in tears.

"But he was all I had." She sobbed.

"And now your last bond is broken, you are free of Temari and can now create yourself anew, it was the whole reason I stopped by your fire, I knew you would, in time, be like me, or did you not know that at one point and time, the Nara clan was talking about a marriage with the Hyuga clan, both parties, that means your precious Shikamaru, agreed." He said to her.

She stopped sobbing and looked at him with something kindred to hate in her eyes.

He stood and walked away, leaving her to stew in her anger for a while.

Temari sat in her sorrow and anger for almost an hour before everything finally sunk in, the man she had wanted to marry, had planned with him to marry, had consented in a marriage with another woman.

Her sorrow was replaced with rage in an instant and she screamed at the screamed away everything

Her sorrow.

Her anger.

Her pain.

She screamed until she became hoarse, but the emotions were still there, under the surface, ready to explode at any moment.

Naruto had heard her scream and waited for her to return. He waited patiently for almost thirty minutes before she walked into the hotel room.

"I've made up my mind." She said, sitting on the bed. "I will devote myself to destroying Sasuke, I'll help you, but on one condition, I get to kill Shikamaru Nara." She pulled out a kunai and cut her finger, dripping her blood onto the floor in front of Naruto. "This blood is my sacrifice, I will be forever your servant, a slave to your will, do you accept my offer."

Naruto looked at her. "Yes. We should leave, prepare yourself for the next time you meet Shikamaru, his time of reckoning will be then."

"So you'll let me kill him?" she asked enthusiastically.

Naruto smiled. "I'll let you; I wouldn't have stopped you from chasing after him, although I would have followed you to guarantee your return. Now, how do you feel about finding the Sound ninja now?"

Temari smiled. "It sounds like a fine idea; why not get Rock and Mist as well?"

Now it was Naruto's turn to smile. "That sounds like the best plan you've come up with in a while."

Temari didn't show anything outwardly, but inside she flinched. "I'd be careful, one more remark like that could get you killed Naruto Uzumaki." She said to him coldly.

His grin didn't falter. "Don't worry Temari, I now when to stop, unlike a certain Nara punk."

She kept her rage in check. He was only joking around, trying to make her angry.

Well god damn it, it was working.

A month later

A slightly wild looking Naruto stood in front of a bunker, to his side was Temari, looking just as wild. Both had been running all over the Five Nations looking for this place.

And they had finally arrived at the Sound village's current base.

"Master, are you sure this is the place?" Temari asked, staring into the depths

Naruto focused on a certain point, and watched the rhythmic breathing of the two ninja hiding in the wreckage of the entrance. "Yes Temari, we are here, be prepared, I am here to make an alliance with them, but that doesn't mean they won't try and harm you."

"Don't be worried for me master, I'll be perfectly fine. I am just a tool now, after all."

"Temari, I have talked to you about this attitude for several weeks, you are not just a tool, you're good company as well, and I'll miss the fun little conversations we have during meals."

"You mean the one's where you bring up my past and I berate you for it for several hours, master?"

Naruto chuckled, looking up into the sky, then down to the worn boots on his feet. "Yes, you like those conversations too, don't you."

"They are always enlightening, master."

"And why is that?"

"Because, in this whole month, I have never used the same insult more than once, master."

"Yes, and the number of insults thrown at me has been exactly one thousand, seven hundred, seventy two. I hope we can add more to that number tonight."

"I don't know master; I'm running out of insults, most of these I got from my younger brothers."

Naruto looked down at his boots again, holding his hand up, he signaled for permission to enter.

The ninja in the bunker froze and Naruto realized he had signaled to them Leaf style, he grumbled and pulled a white sheet from his pack, waving it like a flag.

The ninja quickly made a hand signal for 'enter' and stepped aside.

Naruto smiled, he could finally begin, with this small step, he would be setting of a chain of events that would lead to the destruction of Sasuke.

Even if Konoha had to be destroyed in the process, it would be worth it.

He took that step, and entered the base, holding his hands high for the Sound ninja to see, as did Temari, the ninja allowed them entrance, but kept a wary eye on them, but that was okay, Naruto thought to himself, _they don't have to trust me, they just have to work for me_, with a smile, he took off the cloak he now wore, as did Temari, and stepped into the depths.

Okay, Naruto came off kind of Orochimaru-ish, and that might scare people a little bit, but trust me, things will be a lot different in the upcoming chapters, I know I could have went into more detail, but I got impatient and wrote this in like six hours altogether, I hope I've done a good Temari, you don't really see much of her personality on the show, so I think I done a decent job, but I want to know how you think, the anger and all that other stuff could have been better written, at least, by someone better than me probably, but I didn't do that bad, did I? Any who, on the two names, Keiho means 'alarm' and Gadoman means 'guard', in the end, the names aren't really all that great, but they were needed, so here they are. That reminds me, I'm pretty much creating a village from nothing, so there will be a lot of original jutsu and characters. But that was to be expected, hope you enjoyed, please review. Pretty please.

Till next time.

Bigsho.


	2. Searches

Blood and Water

Arc 1: The Escape

Chapter 2: Searches

Well, here we are. This is the second chapter of Blood and Water. I was very surprised to see that people actually enjoyed my darkest Naruto yet, well just you wait, when I finish with Five Star Seal, I will weave a masterpiece of evil, evil Naruto that is. I believe that most people enjoyed this Naruto, so I plan on keeping him this way. I did notice people didn't like the way Temari is acting, all I'll say on that is wait, just wait.

To tell you the truth, in a two week period, the first chapter of this story did better than any of the other chapters in the same time period, and at the moment that chapter has the most reviews out of all my chapters, it's amazing, I thought you all would hate this story for the behaviors of our favorite blond ninja.

Well, one last thing to say before I put the disclaimer that I forgot to put in the last chapter in. As I said in the last chapter, this story will actually be two stories blended into one, the story of Naruto and Temari, and the story of the Konoha ninja. I don't know why I want to do it this way, it just seemed like it would fit this story perfectly, and hopefully, after I tossed the first complete version of this chapter to do this one, it will.

For the first and last time in this story, I do not own Naruto or anything affiliated with it.

* * *

A Year and Eight Months Ago

An axe swooped downward. Sakura didn't feel anything other than a strange pulling sensation on her lower abdomen. She jumped back and upon landing, was met with a wave of pain so furious it threatened to render her unconscious.

This mission had gone to hell in a hand basket. Sakura and Ino were the medics in this assault team, lead by none other than Naruto, the team consisted of a tracker to find the enemy squads, two medics, and four heavy hitters for engagement. They had been retreating from a successful attack when another squad ambushed them from behind. Ino had taken off with Shino, their tracker, and Lee, one of the four heavy hitters in their group. Naruto, also a heavy hitter, had taken the other two under his command and blocked Sakura off from the enemy, as she had already used most of her chakra to heal the destructive warriors. One ninja, a burly giant with a deadly axe, had somehow gotten through, and had now managed to injure her.

_The Sound ninja walked up to her slowly, as if savoring her pain before killing her, he smiled at the woman now on her knees, bleeding heavily and struggling to stay awake._

"_Well now, did I hurt ya little missy? My apologies, I'm just tryin' to feed this glutton I have here." He said, patting the axe fondly, as if rewarding a child for doing a good deed. "Well, I better finish you off before yer friends get here to interrupt his dinner."_

_The ninja lifted the axe, preparing to cleave Sakura in two. He smiled, but as he prepared to swing, a muffled thump sounded behind him. His eyes widened, and he fell forward, a kunai lodged stoutly into the back of his head. She relaxed just a fraction, her vision swam and she fell backward, dizzy. Her eyes barely registered the mop of golden yellow hair, but her body could not help but feel the grip of her teammate and boyfriend. She smiled. She didn't even notice the other two ninja that stood beside him, one being their friend Sai and the other a new addition to the group._

"_Naruto…you're here." She mumbled weakly, her vision steadying enough to see the tears running down his face; mixing with the rain that was gently falling around them._

"_Yeah...I'm here." He choked out. "And everything's gonna be all right sweetie, Ino will be here in a minute, and she'll fix you up right as the rain that's falling around us now, that she will." He said, speaking the last bit in an imitation of her father._

_She laughed a little bit, then looked up at him. "It's too late Naruto." She said, staring into his glacier blue eyes solemnly. "I've lost too much blood; I don't think I'll make it home."_

_He choked back a sob. Wiping back a lock of pink hair from her face he said, "No, we'll be home, oh god Sakura, we're going home, don't give up on me now baby, hang in there, I'll be right here, I'm not going anywhere. Oh god, where's Ino?"_

"_Naruto, please…" Sakura whispered. He leaned in closer to hear her next words, barely even a whisper. "No more talking, just stay right here, Ok, be with me until it ends." She said as she grasped his hand._

_Naruto's sobs filled the clearing. A rough shove pushed him aside as Ino appeared and began to heal her friend. "Come on Sakura." She pleaded. "Don't give up now; I'll have you good as new in a minute, you just hold on! I was gonna be your maid of honor goddammit! I'm not about to let you die now!" the blond woman hissed as she worked._

"_Ino…" Sakura's eyes dimmed for merely a second, then with a shuddering breath the color returned to her pale face, she gasped in a huge lungful of air and gripped Naruto's hand tighter._

"_It's all right." He said, reassuring himself as much as he was her. "Everything's gonna be Ok"_

_He turned to Ino "So where's Lee and Shino, weren't they with you?"_

_Ino's body went rigid. "Shino and Lee were separated from me in the ambush, they were surrounded, by the time I was able to render assistance, it was already too late, they're gone."_

_Sakura's brain barely registered this information. Instead, she felt an immense wave of exhaustion envelop her. "M' Tired." She mumbled. "I'm just gonna get a couple winks K?" and with that she drifted to sleep, hearing Naruto call her name._

_Sakura, Sakura, wake up,_ SAKURA!!

* * *

Sakura, Sakura, wake up, SAKURA!!

A new voice registered in her brain. It was a cold and demanding voice that sent a chill down her spine. She opened her eyes to see her ex-teammate sitting at the Hokage's desk, glaring at her angrily. She had been asleep in the lounge chair in the Hokage's office.

"This is not the time to be daydreaming!" he snapped. "We have important matters to deal with and here you are taking a nap in my office, if you do that again I'll have you flogged and demoted!" he snarled.

"My apologies Hokage." She said. Standing to make sure she did not fall asleep in the chair again.

Kakashi looked at her with a knowing glance; he hated politics almost as much as she did. She and her old mentor stood at attention waiting for his orders.

Sasuke growled angrily, then stood and walked to the window, displaying a calm that both knew was just a thin cover for the rage boiling under his skin.

"I want you to find him, I want you to bring him back here, and I don't care what his condition is as long as he is brought through the gates _alive_. Am I clear?"

"Yes sir!" the two ninja said in unison.

Sasuke turned, his eyes now the red of the Sharingan. "I want you to take two full squads of Anbu, that's fourteen more to your number; that should be sufficient. Failure is not an option. If you return through those gates without him, you're as good as dead to me, now go!"

The two ninja vanished through an open window almost instantly, barely stirring a breeze in his office. The dark Uchiha sat back down and placed his elbows on the table and interlocked his fingers; settling into his favorite brooding pose, he waited for the Anbu captain he had sent with two full squads to retrieve the blond menace. The office was quiet as he waited. After an hour he slammed his fists against the table.

"Where the fuck is that lazy ass bastard?!" he shouted.

* * *

Shikamaru returned to the town where he had fought the two blonds earlier. He looked at the destruction wreaked by Temari's fan. Lying before him were eleven dead Anbu, all butchered, by the looks of it, with a large scythe.

He sighed and headed to the tree where he and three others had engaged against Naruto. Two were moaning; the one woman had staggered over to the man who was now blinded, and was trying to pull out the kunai embedded into his eyes. She looked up when she heard him approach.

"Oh, sir." She said quietly. "We didn't expect him to react as quickly as he did, and the power, he went through Higeki's mask, look. And poor Shiroto probably won't walk again." She said, and then slumped to the ground, finally giving in to the effects of blood loss.

Shikamaru sighed as he hefted all three of his injured soldiers on his back. He took off into the forest without another word.

* * *

Sakura bounded through the forest with her group in tow, Kakashi beside her. She slipped into the rhythm of jumping from branch to branch and let her mind wander.

After that mission she had Tsunade check her ovaries. Ino had done everything she could, but the axe had done enough damage. Sakura could never conceive a child. She and Naruto had nearly split apart after that, until Naruto proposed, then things had been just fine until Sasuke had returned. She had seen him, and felt her old infatuation return, and now look at the mess that had unfolded from her mistake.

"All right, this is as far as the rest of you go." Said a certain silver haired shinobi beside her.

* * *

Shikamaru grunted under the heavy weight of the survivors of his squad. He needed to get to the Hokage fast, and he was losing precious seconds hauling the three Anbu on his shoulders.

An idea suddenly hit him. They were of no use to the Hokage anymore. Surely the torture they would face for all three losing to one man with six projectiles. They would be humiliated, and probably would either fall into depression followed by suicide, or they would leave. Death out in the field would be a better deal for them wouldn't it. The three Anbu stirred, and Shikamaru sped up, a small smile lighting his face.

The forest was suddenly filled with the noise of three people screaming as they fell to the forest floor. Shikamaru picked up the pace, with considerably less weight on his shoulders.

* * *

She turned; Kakashi had stopped on the branch beside her and had turned to face the fourteen Anbu following them.

The Anbu stopped; staring at their two commanding officers warily; one, stepped forward and addressed the silver haired shinobi.

"What do you mean sir?" he said warily, his hand drifting toward the kunai holster on his leg. "We're supposed to follow you and render assistance in bringing Naruto back."

Kakashi looked down. "I know, but I have made my decision, I will not follow Sasuke's orders any more."

Sakura gasped. "K-Kakashi, what are you saying?"

"Sakura, you may have missed it, but the look in Sasuke's eyes when he told us to bring him back told me one thing…. the only reason he wants Naruto back in the village is so he can kill him himself." Kakashi said lazily. "Now that I've said that little bit, I'll give the rest of you a choice. Join me or die."

Six of the Anbu nodded, including the one who asked the question. He pulled off his mask, revealing a familiar face.

"Sai!" Sakura said enthusiastically.

"Ugly." He replied with a nod, smiling at the look of outrage on her face.

The other eight pulled out weapons. Kakashi pulled up his headband, revealing the Sharingan.

The eight attacked and only Kakashi went forward, showing his superior skill as he cut down every single one of them in less than three minutes. He signaled to the group and they left, Sakura still astounded at the silver haired ninja who led their group.

* * *

Shikamaru stood agape at the sight unfolding in front of him. He watched as a full squad of Anbu, plus another one from a second squad, was massacred by his friend's teacher. He quickly turned and left, hoping that he wasn't spotted. He had to report to the Hokage.

* * *

Kakashi's pace doubled as the team left the area. It wasn't a big deal, but one of the Anbu with them, a new recruit by the looks of her, spoke. "Sir, why are we going so fast? We have no one pursuing us and I doubt we will for a long time."

"We were being watched by an Anbu soldier." Sai answered from in front of her. "He walked onto the scene just before I removed my mask. Within two hours this whole area will be covered in Anbu, all traveling at high speed in this direction. Therefore, we have to get to the border of Fire and into Rice before we are overcome by our enemies."

"Oh, well, sorry my asking." She said, feeling a little stupid.

"It's not a problem Dimwit." He said.

Sakura fell back to the girl who was clearly in a state of shock. "It's all right, he just has problems with communicating with people. Hey, he calls me Ugly, you've got it mild compared to me."

The girl turned to her. "Well…"

"Well what?" Sakura asked.

"I think he has a point." The Anbu said.

"Listen, you're not dumb…"

"No, but you really _are_ ugly." The girl said as she shot off, leaving Sakura staring at her back in both shock and rage.

"Why you!" Sakura hissed at her as she reached for a kunai. Kakashi's hand stopped her halfway.

"Remember to breathe slowly, calmly, and then you'll be at your most limber state of body, then a whole range of pos…" he was cut off as Sakura shoved her fist into his face.

"I don't need your perversion right now Kakashi!!!"

* * *

"I see, so now Kakashi and Sakura leave my ranks, along with the bastard that replaced me and five Anbu." Sasuke drawled as he glared at the ninja bowing before him. "Shikamaru, you failed, and failure is met with death at my hands."

Shikamaru flinched, but did not move.

"But you have proved loyal in returning and giving me this news, so your life will be spared." Sasuke continued. "I want you to go after them, kill all but Kakashi, Sakura, and Sai. I'll deal with them myself."

"Yes sir." But if I may ask sir, how many men should I take with me?" Shikamaru said, standing slowly.

"Take three full squads, and don't come back unless you're carrying at least one of them with you."

"As you wish sir." And with that, Shikamaru was gone.

* * *

Two Weeks Later

Sakura sat, sipping her tea quietly as Kakashi and Sai poked and prodded the villagers for information. On her left sat the girl who had insulted her during their escape. She had opened up a bit to Sakura; apologizing about the bad joke she had played and formally introduced herself as Miki. The two had become friends, mainly because they were the only girls in the group.

The other four introduced themselves as Daisuke, Hachiro, Katsu, and Kenji. The four men had been very polite, but they went to the extremes that freaked the two girls out, and so at the moment, the two girls were sipping tea and trying to ignore the glances the men shot at them.

Sai and Kakashi walked up the road to the small inn where they were staying. Sai looked pretty, well, normal for him, so depressive and boring, but Kakashi had a slight bounce in his step and gave all of them a smile, or at least what appeared to be a smile.

"Good news." He said, "We're on his trail, he passed by here a week ago."

One of the men whistled, it was Kenji. "Well we got our work cut out for us huh, a whole weeks worth, he's got to be miles from here, and we're miles from the border of Fire, heading in the direction of Water, how do you think the Mist ninja will take it when we show up, a group of Konoha Anbu in full garb marching through on a wild goose chase after one ninja. I think it's idiotic continuing, it's been two weeks and I thought it was going to be simple, we go a ways, find him, and make a plan from there, but look at us now! We're ragged and wild, we look more like a ragtag group of rogue ninja rather than highly trained covert operatives…"

At that moment all hell broke loose.

* * *

Shikamaru had stalked hi prey silently, leading his group of twenty-one Anbu ruthlessly through the pursuit of these runaways, and now here he sat, waiting to give the order to attack and capture Sakura while she was alone with the five Anbu that had followed Kakashi along with her and Sai. And then as an added bonus, those two show up as well, Shikamaru waited patiently, his eyes scanning for the moment Kakashi dropped his guard, and there it was! He let his hand fall forward and felt twenty-one bodies rush past him before he himself jumped forward, and the attack begun.

Kenji was impaled upon a sword a moment before Katsu met his end by a vicious slash to his throat. By that time the others had time to react and fight back. Daisuke took out four before his leg was lopped off, his head following a minute later. Hachiro fought a group of seven of them, his water jutsu against their combined fire jutsu made him cook in the steam created from the blast, leaving the charred corpses of himself and three of his attackers, who were too slow to get out of the way of the incoming wave of steam.

Miki and Sakura fought back to back, until a powerful blow to the ground by Sakura knocked her off her feet, saving her from death as a kunai flew past her head, the kunai's rounded end slamming against her temple and rendering her unconscious.

Sai reacted badly, he didn't have time to pull out his paper and ink before he was subdued and bound.

Kakashi, it appeared, had been a clone the entire time, and stood there calmly as he was dispelled.

The real Kakashi arrived and picked up the body of Miki, signaling to Sakura that they needed to retreat, killing two enemy Anbu in the process. Sakura nodded to indicate that she understood when Shikamaru entered the group, yelling at his men.

"Retreat, retreat! We've got what we came for! Now let's get out of here before we suffer any more losses! Go!" He shouted, jumping back into the trees.

His men followed without a word. Within three minutes, they had attacked and disappeared, leaving the three alone.

"Is she…" Sakura started as she looked down at her new friend.

"No. She's only knocked out." Came Kakashi's reply. "But she was lucky, we've lost everyone else, and they took Sai before I could get here. He must've been following us."

Sakura stood. "We've got to go and get him back."

Kakashi stood up and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Sakura, Sai would have wanted us to continue."

Sakura shook her head, shouting. "You talk like he's already dead! He's our friend and you're trying to abandon him! And what did you say about people who abandon their friends?"

He looked down. "Those people are worse than trash." He replied sadly. "But what about Naruto?"

"He can wait, Sai needs us now."

"Then we wait till Miki wakes and then we strike at nightfall."

* * *

Night had fallen. Sai's eyes fluttered open. He was bound and gagged at the edge of a small camp. There was no fire, and no noise. Instead small lams producing a faint blue light were scattered about the area, and by each light was an Anbu guard, with two on either side of him, one being the only one unmasked. He looked at the man's face, and then it clicked; he was staring at none other than Shikamaru Nara, head captain of the Anbu after Naruto gave up the position and most of the ninja life for politics on his way to the Hokage title. Sai glared at the man as Shikamaru's gaze wandered down to check his prisoner. As his eyes picked up the scathing glare he smiled.

"Ah, the princess is awake, eh?" he said mischievously. "Well guess what's going to happen to you. We're going to beat the living hell out of you and then we're going to drag you back for a nice long torture and execution by our beloved Hokage." He pulled the gag out of Sai's mouth. "What have you got to say to that?"

Sai continued glaring at him, then his gaze shifted and he smirked. "Would look out behind you work?" he said.

Shikamaru turned to watch his partner clubbed to the ground. But before he could give a warning shout, he was hit in the back of the head and he saw nothing but a flash of white light before blackness enveloped him.

* * *

Sakura was untying Sai while Kakashi handled Shikamaru. Sai looked around. None of the other guards had moved. "What…?" he began.

"Miki has them trapped in a genjutsu." Sakura said as she helped her ex-teammate up. "Come on, let's get out of here before any of them break it."

Sai and Kakashi nodded and the three were off, Kakashi in the lead. They met up with Miki about eighty yards away from the camp and together the four disappeared into the night.

* * *

Shikamaru woke up to cold water splashing in his face. He looked around to see his remaining Anbu circled around him. Embarrassed, he stood.

"Status?" he asked.

"None dead, but the prisoner got away sir, most of us were trapped in a genjutsu when it happened."

"DAMMIT!!!"

* * *

A Week Later

Sai stood overlooking a mist-covered plain. He turned to his right as Sakura, Kakashi and Miki topped the hill. Sakura gave a shout of joy.

"We made it!" she whooped. "We made it to Water!"

Miki smiled brightly before adding in a peal of joyful laughter. Sai just gave a small smile.

Kakashi shushed the group and led them stealthily to a small town, where they bought local clothes that made them look, for all the world, like natives, concealing their various ninja weapons inside the folds of large jackets that they had bought as well.

"Now we go on a search for our blonde friend in one of the most dangerous countries to foreigners, we must be silent and quick, do not let the hordes of bandits or the squads of ninja on patrol see you, you will be killed on sight." Kakashi said to them as they left the village, Kakashi himself wary of the eyes of the villagers boring into their backs as they walked.

* * *

Shikamaru paced the opening of the umpteenth lab that they had followed Naruto's trail to. It was empty, as usual. They had not caught up to the blonde after forsaking the search for Kakashi and his followers; he had sent a bird in one of the border towns, requesting to go after Naruto instead. Sasuke had sent back a very angry yes, but it had been a yes, it was an easy, but unfruitful job, tailing Naruto in hopes to catch him. Sasuke had also sent reinforcements. At the moment, he had a full seven squads under his command, all doing a different job. The main purpose for the reinforcements was to allow some of them to tail the group Sasuke was hell-bent on retrieving and punishing, he had three full squads following them up until they had crossed the border into Water less than a day ago, and those troops would soon be returning.

He looked up as his earphone squawked to life; an Anbu was reporting from inside the base. "No one's been here for almost two weeks sir, and it looks like only two people were here."

"Is that all the information you have gathered?" Shikamaru radioed back.

"No sir, I followed their trail to a back entrance. Their heading Southeast by the look of it sir." The Anbu said over the radio.

"Good job soldier. Radio your squad and meet me at the front entrance in fifteen minutes, I want a full report of the building before we go off searching for those two blondes."

"Yes sir, thank you sir." The Anbu said before the line went silent, Shikamaru signaled his troops to head to the entrance and wait. They waited patiently and in fifteen minutes, at the scheduled time, out walked the seven Anbu. One stepped forward.

"Report." Shikamaru said stolidly.

"The base is empty sir, no one's been there for weeks." The Anbu said in a professional manner.

"Very well, let's follow that trail you found." Shikamaru said, leading his men southeast at high speed, right over the top of the base and past the secret entrance found by the Anbu scout.

Shikamaru had a smile on his face. He was off hunting.

And it felt good to be the hunter.

* * *

Well, that's all I got for this edition of Blood and Water, and let me tell you, I had one hell of an episode when I deleted the first draft, but it was completely obsolete to this one, oh god it was horrible, and short too. It ended the same though, surprisingly. On the subject of the manes, I just went on the computer and looked up common Japanese names, so I don't rightly know what they mean, and that kind of sucks, I might have given one of the guys a really shitty name, but it's too late to change it now so... Well, I've taken too much of your time today so, good-bye for now, see you in a month or so when I post the next chapter. Bye Bye!


	3. Entitled to Peace

Blood and Water

Arc 1: The Escape

Chapter 3: Entitled to Peace

Hey, I know a lot has been left out about things, this chapter and the next one clear up most of your questions. I hope you've all enjoyed the story thus far, and as it is only chapter three, it has only begun, and the story will begin to get going in earnest starting chapter five, but to get there we got to work through all the technical bullshit, so please enjoy _more _of the technical bullshit until chapter five, just because its bullshit doesn't make it any less awesome though, don't think I'm dissing my own story here, I like this one too much to do that.

Okay, when I say mid June, holy shit, I didn't expect to hit dead center mid June. That's one fucked up puppy right there. Well, enjoy! by the way, for me, the 14, 15 and 16 are mid june, so i just barely made the deadline, I was actually shooting for June 19.

On with the show!

* * *

Two Weeks Ago.

_Naruto_ _sat by the fire; Temari was across from him, going into one of her now frequent rages._

_Goddammit! This was the seventh fucking base we've been to! FUCK! If I'd have known these bastards were going to be this hard to find, I wouldn't have advised going after the rabble of fucking dimwits we're tracking!"_

_She threw a log into the fire, sending sparks and burning debris into the air. She turned to Naruto, who was sitting peacefully, chewing on a chunk of rabbit that had been their dinner._

"_Temari, I believe it would be best if you calmed down." He said smoothly._

"_Fuck you!" she spat. "It's your goddamn fault that I'm here in the first fucking place!"_

_Naruto's eyes grew cold. "Sit down! And that was an order!" he shouted. She grumbled a bit about blood oaths, but sat down quickly, lest she receive some of her master's rage._

_Naruto stood. "I will not have you acting like this when we enter their camp, understand? You will have to obey everything I say without question, you must be the epitome of serious; I demand it from you. We must make an impression, they must, and I mean __must__, respect us, or we cannot get them to join our cause."_

_She hung her head. "Fine." She grumbled._

"_From now until we strike a treaty with the Sound I want you to be the perfect servant, understand, this is an order, make it a mission, it'll also help you control your temper, do you have any questions?"_

_Temari's face hardened before she schooled her expression. "No master, I have no questions, I exist to follow your rule; that is all I need to know."_

"_Good. We move out at dawn, the closest base is a few days from here."_

"_Yes master."_

* * *

Temari looked around with interest. There had to be at least fifty ninja inside this base. She didn't want to think of the odds of surviving against that many at once.

Naruto stared straight ahead, using his peripheral vision to effectively scan the base, or at least what he could see. They had bunked down quite nicely, but all were fearful. He even saw a woman jump when a drop of water fell from the ceiling and splashed into a puddle in front of her.

_They're all jumpy,_ Naruto thought with a smile, _they're on a hair trigger, they stand upon the edge of a knife, all Sasuke has to do is point out the location of this base and the wrath of Konoha would fall on them…this will be too easy._

They were escorted to the center of the base, where a man sat at a table, the remains of a small lunch being cleaned off. Upon seeing the two ninja enter, he stood. The man was tall, not as tall as Naruto's six foot five, but tall enough that he could look him in the eye. He had short brown hair, slowly fading into gray, cut military style, with a scar stretching from his left temple to his chin. He stood like a man bred for the military, and his size made him intimidating, a perfect leader for the remains of Oto. On his belt was a decorated katana, but unlike other swords, the tip of the blade not only extended forward, but also had a protrusion shooting out the back, making a deadly hook.

"Hello." He said warily. He eyed Naruto. "I had heard that two ninja had come to us in peace, but I did not expect the Toad Sage to be one of them. My name is Jitsuzai, and I welcome you to what is left of Oto."

Naruto smiled. "You do not fear my presence; then you must have heard that I am no longer a ninja of Konoha."

Jitsuzai smiled back. "Of course, we have placed nearly double the spies in Konoha than we had when Orochimaru commanded here, we knew the moment you left the city, but since your departure, we've pulled almost half of them back to bolster our forces here."

Naruto grew serious. "You're expecting Sasuke to attack. Does he know where you are located?"

Jitsuzai laughed. "If he knew where we were, we'd already be destroyed. I'm surprised he's put as much focus as he has on you, considering I gave him a blow to his pride when he left."

Naruto looked at the man questioningly. "What did you do?"

Jitsuzai smiled and pulled a bundle off of his back. He unwrapped it, revealing Sasuke's sword, broken in three places, just above the hilt, and a few inches below the tip. Jitsuzai handled it fondly.

"Yep, it's the best sword I ever made, but the little wretch never gave it the proper respect, and when he turned it against me, well, I couldn't have that, so I broke it. I bet the blighter's stinging without it." He said; then laughed heartily.

Naruto laughed as well, and then his face grew serious. "Listen Jitsuzai, I didn't come here to trade small talk; I'm here on business."

Jitsuzai's smile also faded, but the twinkle in his eye had not. "So, yer here for business eh; well, what do you want, we'll start there at least."

"Join me." Naruto said simply.

Jitsuzai's face hardened. "What harebrained scheme is in yer head Uzumaki?"

Naruto smiled. "I'm all about killing one person. I'm out to kill the Hokage, Sasuke Uchiha. But I need men under my command to do it, and who better than you, the ninja of Oto, to help me."

"No."

Naruto looked at him in surprise. "Why? Do you not want to get revenge on him for the wrongs he has committed?"

"He has harmed us greatly, but I cannot risk more loss to my men, and we of Oto cannot combat all of Konoha alone." Jitsuzai said sternly.

Temari stepped forward, her demeanor of a servant vanishing instantly. She stood by Naruto, looking straight at Jitsuzai as if he was no more than an Anbu captain. "You will not be alone." She said just as stern as he.

He turned to her. "And just who will help us woman?" he said.

She glared at the man. "I am more than just a servant Jitsuzai; I am Lord Naruto's counsel and his second in command, Temari of the Sand, formerly head of Suna's tracker Nin squad."

He looked at her with a little more respect. "I see." He said. "Then ma'am, who do you suggest we ally ourselves with?"

"It is not my suggestion. Lord Naruto instructed that, after we have tried to convince Oto to follow us, he has instructed me to lead him to the location of thirty ex-Mist ninja, and then from there he will take us to the location of a new ninja village, the Village Hidden by the Ocean, or Taiyogakure, if you will."

Jitsuzai looked at Naruto incredulously. "Is what she says true?" he asked disbelievingly.

Naruto smiled. "Yes, it is the truth. With the three hundred ninja you have here, and those thirty, I will have enough ninja to start my own village, and from there we accept students, teach them our ways, and within seven to ten years we'll have a force big enough to destroy Sasuke and any resistance he manages to put up. We won't have to worry about the ninja of Konoha, most of them favored me taking the Hokage's hat, but that was not to be. They will most likely let us follow out our mission, but on the off chance that they are turned against me I will not allow their deaths, you may subdue them if needed, but I don't want any more casualties than needed, it is the Anbu we'll have to worry about, Shikamaru is the head of the Tracker Nin squad in Konoha, and he hasn't been right since his father died fighting against your ninja two years ago. The man lusts for more power, and by allying himself with Sasuke he can get it. The Anbu squad right now numbers more than three hundred, so as you said, we do not have enough men to fight them off, but we will if you aid us."

Jitsuzai looked at him thoughtfully. He ran a finger over his scar and stood silently for a few moments. "You wish to kill the Hokage, but refuse to let the ninja of Konoha, other than the Anbu, be killed. You're playing a very dangerous game…I'm in, I love a good challenge, and maybe under a different title the ninja of Oto will gain some respect and admiration from the people in the Five Nations. Maybe as Taiyo ninja we'll be safer. Everyone should be entitled to peace; that includes us. But as you said, it will take seven to ten years to accomplish the feat of creating enough ninja with superior fighting skills to the Konoha Anbu to achieve our goal, when do we begin?"

Naruto smiled; then turned and walked out of the room, saying; "Have your men ready to move tomorrow, we have a long way to travel before we get to Water, and I'm sure we'll run into plenty of Anbu patrols, they've been following us since I left Konoha."

Then we will march at dawn, I'll have one of my soldiers lead you to a room. You can stay inside the base tonight and we'll vacate the premises before the sun completely rises." Jitsuzai said warmly.

* * *

They were led out the door behind Jitsuzai by a fierce yet calm looking gray clad woman. She led them towards the back of the base to a sector that was nothing but living quarters. They were led to a room. The woman opened the door and ushered them inside silently. It was a small, but cozy room with two beds beside each other and a fire crackling in the grate. The woman let the pair observe the room; then bowed and took her leave; the two shrugged off their overcoats and went to sit next to the fire.

"Well," Naruto began, "I didn't expect that to go as easily as it did. I mean, I liked the outcome, but I was expecting more of an argument from him."

Temari flopped down on one of the beds. She looked up at Naruto. "Well, he is just a military man. Politics isn't his forte, it's not mine either, but when your brother is the Kazekage, well, you learn." She said, snuggling under the covers. "Now if you don't mind, I'm going to sleep. It's been a long time since I slept in a bed and I'm going to sleep as long as I can in it, goodnight." And with that, she clicked the light off and was asleep before her head hit the pillow. The room was filled with a graying darkness, as the bathroom light was on. Naruto sat in the chair close to the door.

Naruto studied her curiously. How could a woman so filled with rage and fire, be so peaceful when she slept. His mind pondered this question as his mind started to wander. His eyes did too, he observed her silky blond hair, her high cheekbones, her soft lips, her curves…his thoughts had took a turn for the worse before he caught her staring at him, he coughed and turned away.

She turned over, giving him a view of her toned backside, saying. "If you're going to stare, please do it once I'm actually asleep, and no beating off, it creeps me out."

Naruto turned to his own bed, trying to shake off the thoughts that had been floating around his mind. "Sleep sounds good." He muttered as he removed his shirt and climbed into his own bed, it took him a while, but a deep sleep overtook him, all the while he was conscious of the studying eyes of the woman who pretended to sleep less than three feet away.

She grunted and rolled over, hoping for the morning to come soon.

* * *

Morning saw Naruto and Temari jumping through the trees with almost three hundred others following directly behind. They moved as quickly as a large force could move, and because they were ninja, that was a lot faster than a normal army could go.

They had been traveling for about three hours when Naruto threw up his arm in a halting motion. He stood alone, in front of this gigantic throng of ninja.

"Lord Naruto? What is it?" Temari said from the branch directly behind him.

Naruto turned; an evilly insane smile etched on his face. "They're coming." He hissed with delight. Suddenly he jerked his head to a location to his right and his smile grew even wider. "I take that back. They're here!"

He was crouched like a hunchback. His eyes no longer blue, but red, in one swift motion he stood to full height, which was now above six feet; and an explosion of red chakra blanketed him, engulfing the entire area ten feet in diameter around him.

"MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" he laughed, screaming at the sky. He continued this for the longest time before his enemy broke cover, jumping into the mass of shinobi around them. Battle broke out and soon the canopy was a mass of projectiles and falling bodies.

Naruto stared directly ahead of him. _**"Oh, Shikamaru, come out and play, you pathetic little whelp!"**_ he called in a voice not his own.

Shikamaru appeared in a swirl of leaves, looking at Naruto with a pompous smile. "So…you knew I was waiting for you. It figures, with your animalistic sense of smell, I should have predicted your noticing us."

Temari froze after cutting down a Konoha ninja with her fan and turned to the voice that rang over the battlefield. Her eyes widened and a red haze enveloped her vision.

"SHIKAMARU!!!!!!!!" she screamed, running at the two leaders facing each other.

"_**Temari! Stay where you are!"**_ Naruto growled as he turned his head in her direction.

She felt her feet stop, her oath wouldn't let her go any further, but her heart was aching for the death of the man standing across from Naruto.

"You told me I'd get to kill him, Naruto!" She shouted, "Why are you stopping me?!"

Naruto's red eyes lingered on her for a moment; then he turned them back on his opponent, who sat watching the interaction with an amused expression on his face.

"_**You'll get your chance Temari, but now is not the right time, I want you and Jitsuzai to get the Sound ninja out of here, I think you can handle thirty or so Anbu, we're three hundred plus strong, go, I'll keep Shikamaru busy. Anbu are only as good as their captain." **_He said as he prepared himself for battle.

"So you plan to keep me here while your army heads to Water for a little bit of reinforcements." Shikamaru said unfazed, the cocky smile never leaving his features. "You know as well as I do that I can outsmart you at every tur..."

Naruto vanished, appearing right beside the Anbu captain. In one swift motion he backhanded the man, knocking him off the tree limb they were perched on. Shikamaru fell rapidly through the foliage, trying desperately to grab at a branch. He had succeeded several times, only for Naruto to appear and lash out, knocking him off again.

"_**I'll see you down at the forest floor, Shikamaru. Hahahahahahaha!!!"**_

* * *

Temari swore she heard maniacal laughter behind her, but she ignored it, jumping into a group of ninja who were being plagued by a few super fast Anbu. She blocked a katana with her fan and kicked out, catching one of them in the gut. He fell back, winded, and was decimated by the Sound ninja who had now had enough time to retaliate.

She turned when she herd the air whistle, and barely dodged a shard of a sword that looked oddly familiar. The tip had a second blade sticking out, making a hook. She turned in the direction it came from to see Jitsuzai surrounded by Anbu, using the foot and a half left of the blade on his sword to shred his opponents.

The man fought like someone possessed, his sword flashing red as the fluidly and brutally slaughtered the Anbu. They had reached for their own swords, but the weapons were like rotten wood compared to the blade wielded by the vicious leader of the Sound ninja.

She smiled, he was a good fighter, and would make a powerful ally in the future.

If they ever got to it.

* * *

Shikamaru screamed as another series of lightning fast attacks hit him in the abdomen. This was the third strike, and Shikamaru had coughed up a lot of blood the other two times, so he expected the same from this barrage as well.

His prediction proved true as he turned and not only spat out a glob of blood, but retched and found the contents of his stomach to consist of the same substance.

"_**Nyahahaha."**_ Laughed the monster standing over him._** "I'll leave you like this for now, Temari still has dibs on killing you."**_ With that, Naruto vanished.

* * *

Temari slit the throat of another Anbu with a kunai she had snatched out of the air and looked around. Jitsuzai was standing beside her, and all was quiet, no sounds of battle remained to account for the destruction of lives that had just taken place.

"It's disheartening, isn't it? The aftermath of battle isn't a glorious celebration; it's a grisly scar on our race." Jitsuzai said as he looked around.

"No; there will never be glory in battle, unless you give your life for a cause that becomes fulfilled and is never forgotten, only the dead get the real glory, the living suffer, as is the way of war." Said a voice from behind and slightly above the two.

They looked up to find Naruto sitting on a branch and leaning against the trunk of the tree, his hands limp at his sides. He sat there jackknifed, staring at the mass of ninja who at this moment were under his command.

"Count and bury the dead, both Oto and Konoha's, they all deserve a resting place." He said quietly. "I want this done as quickly as possible, we won't camp till tomorrow night, and I want to be in Water a few days afterwards, we're close enough."

Jitsuzai looked at Naruto admirably. And Temari was dumbstruck at the kindness Naruto was showing to the ninja he had broken ties with. She didn't understand his reasoning. The Konoha Anbu squad was the main enemy to their cause. She kept that in her head as the army worked to bury the dead, it was in late afternoon before they were finished.

"Temari."

She snapped out of her daze, Naruto still sat in the crook, he was staring at her intensely.

"W-what is it my lord?" she asked.

"To answer the question I am sure is in your mind, I need to ask you a question."

"What is it?"

"In Suna, do you recruit Anbu every five years, and does the training process take another three years after that?" he asked.

"Yes…Why?"

"Because that is the way Konoha set our own Anbu up. I hand picked and trained most of the Anbu we killed today." He said quietly.

"Oh…" Temari started to apologize, but held her tongue. To give Naruto any pity would remove the glory from the dead in his eyes, so she brought up the next question on her mind. "And Shikamaru?"

Naruto smiled. "I let him live, but just barely. He'll crawl his way back to the closest village, radio in a medic and reinforcements and be on our tail in no time. You still hold the right to take his life, as was our pact."

"Thank you, Lord Naruto."

"Are the bodies all taken care of?"

"Yes sir, fifty-three graves, sir, we lost twenty three of our own."

Naruto frowned. "That number is a little too high; we must get those Mist ninja now, if we're to start our own village. Have the men ready to move in an hour, but for now, let them rest and eat, we won't do so again till we make camp tomorrow night.

"Yes sir!" she said, and then went about the task of alerting the Oto ninja.

* * *

Shikamaru lay in a red haze. Was this the end? Was this how he was going to die? No. He wasn't going to let it end like this. He rolled over and started crawling in a southern direction. He wasn't going to die, hell no, he wasn't going to give Naruto the satisfaction.

He crawled on the forest floor, oblivious to the people working on burying his dead comrades, along with their own; he was hidden in the undergrowth, and they didn't see him.

He crawled; intent on living, and intent on killing the person that had done this to him. He grinned maniacally; Naruto was going to pay for this.

He was going to die.

* * *

An hour passed and the large group took off into the forest once more. They moved at full speed; as if they had demons nipping at their heels. They moved silently, and they were camouflaged. But one thing was very clear.

The Sound ninja were on the move.

* * *

A little radio crackled to life on Sasuke's desk.

"L-lord Hokage, come in."

Sasuke rushed to the radio, picking up the headpiece.

"Shikamaru, status report. How is the search going?"

"I have just finished engaging the enemy, our losses, thirty out of thirty; theirs, twenty five out of three hundred and twelve. I confronted Naruto myself, but the bastard used Kyuubi's chakra, I was no match for his speed."

"Where are they now?"

"They are currently en route to Water. Sir, I am badly injured, and I'm hiding in a small village on the south border of Rice."

"Yes, I know the village. I'm sending reinforcements, along with a medic."

"W-who are you sending?"

"Don't worry; the remainder of the Rookie Nine will be there shortly."

And with that, Sasuke shut off the radio, a smile on his face.

He didn't have long to wait before the Mangekyo would be his. Naruto would die at his hands.

* * *

The camp was made quickly and efficiently. They hadn't got as far as Naruto wanted due to having to cut around a small village to keep on his southerly bearing without alerting people to their presence. It put him in somewhat of a foul mood.

"We lost about seventy kilometers of ground today, I expect us to make it up tomorrow." He said to Jitsuzai and Temari in the command tent that evening. "I wanted to be roughly two hundred miles from the border to Water when we camped, now we're closer to three hundred. That adds another day of running to get to the border; the more time we spend in these small nations, the more time the Konoha ninja will have to catch up to us, and I have no idea who they'll send after us next, they have found that Anbu have no chance unless it's a one on one fight."

"I have a guess." Jitsuzai said quietly.

Naruto turned to face him with wide eyes. "You still have spies in Konoha! Who! Who is Sasuke sending?"

Jitsuzai frowned. "As far as I know, a team of Ino Yamanaka, Kiba Inuzuka, Choji Akimichi, and Hinata Hyuga left this evening bound for the village north of us, from there, we are their target. They are to be lead by Shikamaru Nara, with additional members, a Neji Hyuga, a woman who goes by Tenten, and the remainder of the original Ino, Shika, Cho team."

Naruto glanced over at Temari, who was pale. "Fuck!" he shouted. He turned and stared at the map on the table that had been behind him, he had been perusing it before Temari and Jitsuzai had entered. He was silent for a while. Then he quietly spoke.

"We head for Water. The men get three hours in the sack; then I want them up and running at double speed; no stops for two days. I want as much distance between us and them as possible.

Both of his advisors snapped at attention. "Yes Sir!" they said in unison, and then they were gone.

Naruto turned back to his map. Soon a race would begin. He had to get to Water, before the Team chasing him got to them.

This was one race he hoped to win.

* * *

Well, I hope you like the chapter, It's quite a bit late, but I just got back the tenth, I've been in Florida since the twenty fifth, so, not good. I hope the chapter is up to snuff. Well, till next time.

Seeya!

If you are reading this, I went back and fixed some errors, enjoy


	4. Wherever this Road Leads

Blood and Water

Arc 1: The Escape

Chapter 4: Wherever this Road Leads

Hello, it has been a LONG time I know… and I apologize, but I have been busy and events have taken me away from the wholesome goodness that is the wonderful FanFiction… I make no excuses, and when I post everything that I intend to post for another several months, I'm hoping that the quality and quantity of it will be enough to compensate for my extremely long hiatus.

Now, this chapter, once again, focuses on Sakura, Kakashi, Sai and Miki, and they will be traveling through the land of Water on a lead they picked up in chapter two, so please enjoy, and once again, sorry for the wait!

* * *

Sakura ducked into the alleyway to her left, looking behind her to check the position of the ninja following her. Damn! They were still hot on her heels! She ran down the alley, praying to whatever deities that watched over her that she would find a way out of this mess. She turned a corner and cursed; she had run into a dead end; she turned as she heard the noise of several people running down the alley. How did she get stuck in this mess!

She was in the largest city in Water. It was about four times bigger than the Mist village, its immense size was due to the fact that it sat directly over every single trade route in Water; they had been here for a few days, following a lead on Naruto.

According to a man in a village near the border in Fire Country, Naruto was looking for two groups of people, the Sound ninja and a small band of ex-Mist ninja. Kakashi reasoned that if they joined either group, they were bound to see Naruto at some point or another; and since they were despised by the Sound village, the rogue ninja were their best bet. The rogue ninja were sneaky though, they had to be, the Mizukage had every available Mist ninja looking for them. They hadn't been seen in several weeks; which was a major setback. But according to information Temari had given Tsunade; which Sakura had learned as the perks of being her assistant, the ninja had been spotted near this very city. So here they were, poking around for information.

It had been a simple mistake. She had been in the market buying food for the group when a man rushed by and took her pack. Angered, she took off after the man, who led her deep into the city. She followed him all the way to a pawn shop, where he was planning on selling her stuff. She beat the man to a pulp, only to have several Mist ninja nearby recognize her and her fighting style.

The chase started at least five hours ago.

* * *

She cursed and spun around wildly, looking for an exit. There! A door stood on the left corner of the building that surrounded it, the sound of music slipped past the door. She uttered a small prayer and bolted at the door, splintering it with one of her massively destructive punches. She felt a kunai as it slipped by her neck, cutting off a small lock of hair as it flew by and embedded itself into the remainder of the wooden door. She gasped and threw herself down a flight of stairs, where a wonderful sight met her eyes.

People.

There were almost three hundred people crammed into a room in front of her. On the other end of the room was a stage, where a band had just finished a song.

The lead singer smiled at the crowd. "Well," he said, panting to regain his breath. "Are you guys ready for another?"

The crowd cheered.

"All right! This one is from our first album, I hope you enjoy it! I dedicate it to this city we live in! Maybe it'll make you open your eyes!" he said, readying his guitar.

The guitarist strummed out a couple tones and the crowd went into an uproar. The lead singer joined in with his guitar and started singing.

_As I walk along these streets_

_I see a man that walks alone_

_Distant echo of people's feet_

_He has no place to call his own_

Sakura took a look at the door to see shadows rushing their way down the stairs. She jumped up and threw herself into the crowd, trying and succeeding to merge herself into the crowds, putting on her hood to cover her bright pink hair. She slowly started to make her way for the exit on her right, near the stage.

_A shot rings out from the roof overhead_

_A crack head asks for change nearby_

_An old man lies in an alleyway dead_

_A little girl lost just stands there and cries_

_What would you do, if it was you?_

_Would you take everything for granted like you do?_

She turned to look and flinched when one of the men pointed at her and began to make his way through the crowd. She had precious little time before the group would be on top of her.

_A boy just 13 on the corner for sale_

_Swallows his pride for another hit_

_Overpopulation, there's no room in jail_

_And most of you don't give a shit_

_That your daughters are porno stars_

_And your sons sell death to kids_

_You're so lost in your little worlds_

_Your little worlds you'll never fix_

_What would you do, if it was you?_

_Would you take everything for granted like you do?_

She made a dash for the door; she got to it and wrenched it open, the men in hot pursuit. She turned and shut the door, locking it with a key that someone had accidentally left in the lock, she pulled the key from the door and crumpled it with her immense strength, thankful that the door was solid metal before slipping down the hallway towards the exit as the song playing behind her grew fainter and fainter.

_You turn away_

_You turn away_

_You turn away_

_You turn away_

_As I walk along these streets_

_Soaking up the acid rain_

_Underneath the taxi cabs_

_I hear the streets cry out in vain_

_What would you do, if it was you?_

_Would you take everything for granted like you do?_

_What would you do, if it was you?_

_Would you take everything for granted like you do?_

She exited the building and found herself reasonably close to the market. Pleased, she hurried to finish her shopping before heading back to their hideout; resigning herself to having to listen to Kakashi bitch about her being several hours late.

Xxx

Shikamaru threw the scroll he had just received across the room. He was immediately berating himself for it, as he couldn't get out of bed to pick it up.

Out of the two hundred some bones in the human body, the doctor said whatever force he had fought with had broken or fractured close to half of them, almost every bone in his right side had been shattered. He was told to stay in the clinic until a high class medic ninja could arrive to heal, sadly he could not _find _the best medic ninja in Konoha; she had went rogue.

A commotion from the front office of the doctor's small clinic drew his attention, and a large dog shouldered into the room, followed by a motley crew of his friends and their family members. His own team had arrived, but his force had also been bolstered with Neji and Tenten, not to mention his teammate's fathers; his would have been here too, if he had not volunteered for that mission to invade and destroy the Sound Village…

_Two Years Prior_

_Thirty ninja were packed into the small office of the Hokage; she sat there with her hands clasped, her eyes scanning the crowd in front of her. These ninja were the best in the village, and she could trust none other than the best for this…_

"_I have an S-Class mission, on volunteer basis only." Tsunade began sternly._

"_Lady Hokage?" Asked the Anbu commander, whose striking blond hair gave him away, "This isn't just an ordinary S-Class is it, to ask for volunteers, what is the mission?"_

"_I was getting to that Naruto, be quiet." She growled, before continuing, "This mission has a certainty of multiple casualties, I cannot force myself to choose from the best ninja of the village, the only ones capable of doing this, so I will let you decide." She took a deep breath._

"_As you know, we have been doing very well in the war against the Sound Village, we have them cornered, I need to make two teams from the lot of you, one of them will blast a hole through the Sound defense, and a smaller one will go in and attack the Sound Village directly, while most of their forces are focused on the other group of ninja. All thirty of you were chosen to do the job, eight to infiltrate the sound directly, and twenty-two of you to be the diversion. I do not expect the infiltration team to return…" she said, her voice cracking at the end._

_Naruto stepped forward. "I shall lead the infiltration team, if you'll let me Lady Tsunade." Sakura gasped and he placed a hand on her shoulder._

"_Very well, any of you wish to go with him?" Tsunade asked._

_Shikaku Nara stepped forward, "I'll go; they'll need someone with brains."_

_Sakura swallowed and stepped forward, locking her eyes with Naruto._

_Sai stepped up with his fake smile._

_Lee jumped in exuberantly "I will go with them on this dangerous mission!" he announced loudly._

"_They'll need someone to track our targets, I will do it." Shino said quietly._

"_I won't let Sakura die on this little soiree, so they'll just have to deal with another medic." Ino said with a smile_

"_I'll help," said a man in the back. He was a new Jonin, but he had great potential as a ninjutsu specialist, and he had an affinity for water jutsu, which was rare in Konoha."_

_Tsunade nodded. "Then Sagi, with you, we have the infiltration team." She handed Naruto a folder. "There is the information you need, now go."_

_Naruto bowed, "Good-bye Hokage-sama." He signaled and the infiltration team turned and walked out of the door, followed by the rest of the ninja assigned to this mission, all with grim looks on their faces._

_And so the mission began._

_The mission altogether lasted six months. The larger team managed to break through the line of Sound ninja and get the infiltration team in easily, they were in enemy territory for most of that time, the larger group waiting in a small village not far from the point agreed upon for the rendezvous. They waited, staring in the direction their comrades were supposed to come from, where they were now; Shikamaru more than most._

_His mother had fallen ill not long after the mission began. She was dying, and with his father on a suicide mission, Shikamaru was lost._

_Then they arrived, minus three…_

_His father was one of the missing._

* * *

Ino took in the enraged look on Shikamaru's face. Apparently, whatever was in that scroll wasn't good. She sighed; he had been increasingly violent since Sasuke returned to the Leaf Village, and with both his mother and father gone, and with Hinata refusing to talk to him, all he had was her and Choji, and the three of them hadn't been getting along too well as of late either, it also didn't help that he had to foot the bill for Chouza's eating and Inoichi's drinking as well…

She hated seeing the man like this; but he couldn't let go of the past, and now he was forced to obey the very man that had killed his father. She had been there when his father was killed. And Naruto left it to her to tell him, as she had left it to him to tell Sakura that the axe had permanently destroyed her ovaries. Shika had not taken the news very well, and blamed it on his two teammates. The three didn't speak until Shikamaru's mother died, and then he had needed their help.

But now he seemed driven to do as his Hokage ordered. and that meant the pursuit and assassination of one of his best friends.

"We have just been given permission to enter the Land of Water, we will be surrounded by enemy hostiles the entire time. We are to be extremely covert, it is imperative that our presence remain unnoticed." he growled.

"It will take another few days to finish healing you." Ino stated with a sigh.

Shikamaru nodded. "Where is Hinata?" he asked, grunting in pain as he sat up.

Ino bit her lip, "She's scouting the perimeter we set up after we arrived."

The wounded man frowned. "She barely does anything else. Does she even sleep?"

"Yes, but she sleeps away from the group. Are you two having problems?" Ino asked.

"I don't have a clue." he replied, falling back into bed and wincing when his injured body protested against is abusiveness. "We were fine until the whole Temari thing."

"You tested the waters with two different girls at the same time. Any normal man knows and expects that to backfire."

"I agreed to the marriage proposal with Hinata and Temari left before I could break it off. What in there could piss Hinata off so much?"

Ino sighed, "It's the fact that you were with both of them at the same time. Girls don't like it when guys play them, it's just the way we are."

"Whatever, it will be over soon anyway. The Kazekage has requested that, if seen, we are to give Temari the same treatment as our own AWOL ninja. Hokage-sama has given us a kill on sight order." Shikamaru said with a pinched expression on his face.

Ino stared at him, she sighed. "You still have feelings for Temari, don't you? I think that's why Hinata can't talk to you."

Shikamaru's eyes shot up. He stared directly into Ino's eyes, and for the first time in two years, Ino felt afraid. It was like looking into the eyes of a dead spirit whose anger had kept it rooted to the world. All that was in them was pain and rage, all consuming.

The stare of a madman.

"It doesn't matter, Temari was not the woman I chose to spend my life with, she has undoubtedly moved on, as have I. If it comes to it, I _will_ carry out Gaara's request and kill her on sight. Now, you are a medic, what can you do to get me out of this goddamn bed?"

Ino swallowed a lump building in her throat and began channeling healing chakra into her hands.

* * *

"You were WHAT!" Kakashi roared at his pink haired comrade.

Sakura sighed and rolled her eyes. "I was spotted, some Mist ninja recognized my fighting style. They know that there are Leaf ninja here now, unless the ninja that chased me halfway across the city decided it would be much more demeaning to have lost one konoichi on their own turf, than to be punished for stopping at a local bar during their shift."

Kakashi sighed. "We can only hope. What else did you pick up on the streets besides our food for the next couple days?"

Sakura sat down in a chair in their little apartment. Miki was sleeping on the bed, she had the night watch. Kakashi crossed his arms and stared at the pink haired woman intently.

"Three hours west of the city, at civilian speed. That's the last town these rogue ninja have raided. Rumor has it that they have a stronghold up in the mountains just north of there."

Kakashi nodded. "I know those mountains, there is an old iron mine up there. That's where we should start looking." he turned toward the door…

"No, not yet." Sakura said before he reached it, "We can't get out of the city that easy. All the ninja stationed here are on guard because of the attack. They'll be even more so now that they have suspicion of Leaf ninja in the area. We cannot risk it."

There was a slight tap at the door, one light nock, followed by two more; Kakashi quickly unlocked the door and opened it; a man slipping in quietly, less than a second later the door was closed and locked once more, and Sai was sitting on the floor.

"I have been scouting the four exits all day." he reported, "We would have to fight several ninja any way we tried to leave. The west exit more than the others."

"We're stuck here; at least for the time being." Kakashi sighed.

"Not necessarily. You can learn a lot about a city by the crime that occurs during unwanted situations. There are thirty secret exits used by smugglers to get goods and people in and out of the city, during productive, peaceful times."

Sakura shifted her gaze to the window. "These are not exactly peaceful times Sai."

The man smiled, "Exactly, due to the issue of the rogue ninja, most of them have been shut down. But luckily for me, there are ROOT contacts here."

Kakashi shifted, "Do you mean that you have found a way to get us out of the city?"

Sai sighed and shook his head with a somber expression. "Not all of us, this contact isn't very trusting, but he agreed to get one person out three days from now. Another thing, it's a one way trip, he'll get them out, but there's no way he'll help them get back in."

"So the four of us have to decide on who goes and who stays." Sakura said with a frown.

"I'll go." Kakashi put in.

"No." Sakura jumped in, "You are way too familiar, and you have a high spot in the bingo books here."

"Then who?" Sai asked quietly, "It can't really be me, my skills wouldn't be able to stand against the rogue Mist ninja if things went sour. Miki is a first year Anbu, while she's quite battle hardened, these are thirty Mist Jonin we're talking about."

"I'll do it." Sakura said with a determined stare. "I'm strong enough to escape with my life, but as the Hokage's assistant, I never really left the Leaf Village often enough to be recorded highly in the Bingo books."

Sai began to argue, but Kakashi sighed and said, "We might as well agree, Sai, when she gets that look in her eyes, there isn't much use trying to sway her. Fine, Sakura will go."

* * *

The clinic was dark; not a sound could be heard from it or the village, nor from the surrounding forest. All was quiet, but that did not stop the ninja camped a few hundred yards out from being wary.

Ino was cold. She had been for the last couple of weeks, when her father had told her that she was betrothed to Sasuke. Since then, the spot at her side had been empty and looming…

And it hurt worse than any physical pain she had ever endured.

She turned over and stared across a small fire to the other side of their encampment. He was still up, and by the look on his face, he was staring at her too. The feeling of hopelessness gripped her heart, threatening to crush it, only one thought coursed through her mind.

_Damn you to hell Sasuke Uchiha_.

She stifled a sob, she had had everything she wanted, and then Sasuke came back and took everything from her.

Across the fire, a man was thinking the same thing, staring at the form of the woman he loved as she tossed and turned in her sleep. His heart broke as he heard a small cry escape from her. He stood and walked out of the encampment, unable to bear the pain of seeing her but unable to hold her.

Ino felt rather than seen him leave. To her it felt like all the warmth in the world was being stolen away. Her tears ran freely, and she couldn't stop them even if she wanted to. An urge to go out and see him overwhelmed her, even though she was engaged, she loved him; not Sasuke.

She went.

He was sitting on a fallen log not far from camp, stroking Akimaru absent-mindedly. She sighed as she walked towards him,

"Kiba…"

His hand stopped, and he turned to look upon her. "We couldn't change this, even if we wanted to."

"I won't marry him!" she shouted at him, and suddenly she had his arms wrapped around her.

"Shh!" he said urgently. "If any of the others hear what you're saying…"

"I don't care. I won't let that bastard use me to breed out more unstable little monsters just like him. And…" She paused and turned around, bringing her face within inches of his. "I love you too much to be with anyone else.'

He smiled, his eyes shining as he stared into the blue orbs that spoke of nothing but love, he leaned in, spanning the distance between them, his lips taking hers.

They didn't move for what seemed a blissful eternity. Only when they finally parted and resumed staring into each other's eyes, the realization of what they were about to do sunk in.

"What now?" Kiba asked, Akimaru padding over to his side and rubbing his head in the ninja's hand.

"We wait," Ino started, her words laced with a determination she had never known, "when we catch up to Naruto, we join him, he has to have a plan, and I'm sure he would welcome our help."

Kiba's eyes widened, the consequences if they failed were catastrophic, a death sentence at minimum. "Are you willing to give up everything you have in Konoha? Your family, and all of our friends?"

She smiled "For you, I'd have already given them up."

"Then we move when the time is right."

* * *

Aaaaaaaand this one's a rap. This is gonna be posted with a TON of other chapters, not just on this story, but on all my stories, sadly, not including that chapter five where all the technical bullshit stops and the true plot of this story begins to unfold. I decided that, with all the chapters that I am posting at the moment, that one will just have to be finished and posted with the next huge installment of chapters, sorry!

Until Next Time.


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